Playing against superior sides in South America gives team more confidence, says Manisha Kalyan

Indian Women's Team midfielder Manisha Kalyan said that playing against technically superior sides in South America has given the team more confidence ahead of the AFC Women's Asian Cup 2022.

India ranked No. 57 in the world, played against higher-ranked teams like Brazil (No. 7), Chile (37), and 56th-ranked Venezuela in November-December 2021. The competition was part of the Indian women team's preparation for the AFC Women's Asian Cup 2022 to be held in India from January 20.

"Playing against those sides was truly a unique experience for us. These are teams that have players who are technically more superior to us, and just keeping up with the pace of the games was so incredibly difficult," the 20-year-old Manisha said.

"We had to stick together and fight like one unit, and I think we gave a good account of ourselves in those three games. That gave us a lot of confidence at the end of the day. Now we know that no matter the quality of the opposition that we face, we can all put up a fight together and do well. That spirit of togetherness has really pumped everyone up ahead of the Asian Cup," she said.

It has been five months since the Blue Tigresses have been training under new head coach Thomas Dennerby, and the forward from Hoshiarpur, Punjab, feels that the attackers in the side have been given a certain level of freedom.

"Yes, we attackers have a good amount of freedom in terms of going forward with the ball. Ours is not a rigid system, as the coach always wants us to think on our feet and make our own decisions in the attacking third. He guides us in training as to what kind of decisions could be better, but he gives us that freedom of decision making," she informed.